After reading that story I hope they have great food and great beer. It was nice that they chased their dreams, and at least they're not trying to open somewhere that's already saturated with beer. Still, it sounds like a lot of risk for what might be 5-8 years of reward.

seriously. i honestly don't get it. and i've even contributed $1000 to a family member's kickstarter campaign.

as i understand it, somebody has an idea and then tries to get people to fund it. if it's an artistic idea, i get it and that's cool. but if it's a business idea? isn't that what banks, savings, and credit cards are for?

oh, and that kickstarter campaign i contributed to? the promised thing was never realized and i never got my money back. Oh well. No big whoop, but the whole concept mystifies me.

"Jument: Their house was 700 sq feet. The average American house is too big but damn, 700 square feet? WITH TWO KIDS? I would be begging for the sweet release of death the first day."

Pro Tip: never leave the US if you really feel that way. 700 square feet can easily be 3 bedrooms in England. Maybe even 4. And, unlike in the USA, they actually include every inch.

verbaltoxin:gggoddammitt: BravadoGT: Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Quiet, you. There's nothing wrong with more variety. Although it's a slim chance, they may actually end up making something amazing. As long as it isn't another IPA.

/DNRTFA

We are reaching a point where some areas are craft beer saturated. Eventually market forces are going to come into play and level the field.

/The same applies with all these cupcake bakeries that keep popping up.

As long as the end result is more variety and better beer, I don't care who makes or sells it. Then again, people with money could always change the distributing laws to fark the little guy. Here in Hawaii, I can't order Hellfighter Imperial Porter because it has to go through licensed distributors. Hawaii is also in a sort of importing limbo, being considered international for trade and travel purposes, but you never know. Money can fark a lot of people over.

/Maybe it's time to invest in a homebrew kit//Until they change the laws to restrict that too///Now where did I put that tinfoil hat again?

verbaltoxin:gggoddammitt: BravadoGT: Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Quiet, you. There's nothing wrong with more variety. Although it's a slim chance, they may actually end up making something amazing. As long as it isn't another IPA.

/DNRTFA

We are reaching a point where some areas are craft beer saturated. Eventually market forces are going to come into play and level the field.

/The same applies with all these cupcake bakeries that keep popping up.

It is certainly possible that we may reach a saturation point. In our area, you can't swing a cat without hitting a craft brewery. But every one of them that has a decent product and reasonably intelligent business practices is at least making enough for the owners to meet payroll and support their own family. No matter how many breweries there seem to be, craft beers are still only about 8 or 9% of the market.

There is also a fair amount of support between the breweries. They view each other more as collaborators than competitors. The effect is to increase interest and support for craft beers as an industry, not just for each individual brewery. I was at a party 4th of July and there were brewers there from 3 different craft breweries. They had all brought samples and they were all talking up each other's breweries as well as their own. The rest of us, of course, certainly enjoyed the free beer. But we also were exposed to beers we hadn't tried before and I know that most of the party-goers who were normally natty light types are going to be buying craft beers now that they would not have before. And the brewers were recommending beers to some people asking for advice that didn't even come from one of the 3 represented.

We might saturate the market at some point but I don't think we're there yet. And meanwhile, I'm certainly enjoying the ride. My biggest dilemma is the severe over-choice problem.

With the number of breweries out there, and the number growing all the time, I wonder why anyone would bother unless you could make world class beer, or have a killer gimmick, or can serve a local population with out any local competition. Because otherwise you are just one more in a sea of hundreds of brewers. I mean a few new breweries have opened up near me and while they are good, it seems crazy to me to risk your savings and work you ass off for something that is just good. To me it seems that if you can't be great (I am thinking like Hill Farmstead or Founders or Dieu du Ciel) at this point why would you bother? Maybe 10 years ago that would have worked (and you could build a brand) but now I am not sure I see a point.

BravadoGT:Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Right, because fark the free market, what we REALLY need are only 2 or 3 beer manufacturing mega-corps that not only tell the country what they think beer should taste like, but buy government officials to make laws in their favor making it impossible for small start ups to get a foothold in the industry...

davidphogan:After reading that story I hope they have great food and great beer. It was nice that they chased their dreams, and at least they're not trying to open somewhere that's already saturated with beer. Still, it sounds like a lot of risk for what might be 5-8 years of reward.

I live in an area that's saturated with beer, but there's no shortage of demand for a place with good beer, good food and pleasant ambiance. Brewpubs can do very well if they cater to the neighborhood they're in. In fact, woe be unto you if the surrounding neighborhood doesn't like it.

And that's how it goes if you want to run a business. Mine took quite a number of years before turning a healthy profit.

"Hey honey let's sell everything, take the kids and move in with your mom so we can follow the latest fad?""Cupcakes? ""No""Tattoos""No""What Then?""Crappy Beer!, all we have to do is give it a cool name that makes no sense and a neat label and all the hipsters will come.""Brilliant!""OK let's practice our new vocabulary. Notes, Finish, Hoppy, Wheaty, Flourishes""This is so cool. We'll fit right in after you grow a beard"

mechgreg:With the number of breweries out there, and the number growing all the time, I wonder why anyone would bother unless you could make world class beer, or have a killer gimmick, or can serve a local population with out any local competition. Because otherwise you are just one more in a sea of hundreds of brewers. I mean a few new breweries have opened up near me and while they are good, it seems crazy to me to risk your savings and work you ass off for something that is just good. To me it seems that if you can't be great (I am thinking like Hill Farmstead or Founders or Dieu du Ciel) at this point why would you bother? Maybe 10 years ago that would have worked (and you could build a brand) but now I am not sure I see a point.

Your post could apply to any new restaurant, or any new business really. Some people just want to have their own thing they offer to others.

I own a small business (we do productions for still photo shoots, mostly commercial and advertising). When I started 10 years ago, there were plenty of others doing the same thing. But I thought I could offer some fresh perspectives on things, and so I worked and worked and worked and built a network and a lot of other things, and today it's highly profitable.

I left software engineering because I was tired of cube life and working for someone else on projects I didn't give a shiat about. If it didn't work out, what did I lose? Some time? Some money? So what?

These folks have a good family and friend network around them. Even if it doesn't work out, they'll have gained a ton of experience in business management which is helpful in so many other parts of life. It's not like they're going to end up under a bridge because they chased their dream.

CeroX:BravadoGT: Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Right, because fark the free market, what we REALLY need are only 2 or 3 beer manufacturing mega-corps that not only tell the country what they think beer should taste like, but buy government officials to make laws in their favor making it impossible for small start ups to get a foothold in the industry...

Yeah, no, what Bravado is complaining about is over saturation of the market. He isn't clamoring for a Budweiser, he's saying that all these Hipsters who open up breweries thinking their "idea" (which is copying someone else's idea to open up a "craft brewery") is unique when really there is so much different types of "Hopped IPA" it's really damn hard to figure they're going to survive in a few years when the "craft brewery" closes down due to lack of money.

TheDirtyNacho:mechgreg: With the number of breweries out there, and the number growing all the time, I wonder why anyone would bother unless you could make world class beer, or have a killer gimmick, or can serve a local population with out any local competition. Because otherwise you are just one more in a sea of hundreds of brewers. I mean a few new breweries have opened up near me and while they are good, it seems crazy to me to risk your savings and work you ass off for something that is just good. To me it seems that if you can't be great (I am thinking like Hill Farmstead or Founders or Dieu du Ciel) at this point why would you bother? Maybe 10 years ago that would have worked (and you could build a brand) but now I am not sure I see a point.

Your post could apply to any new restaurant, or any new business really. Some people just want to have their own thing they offer to others.

I own a small business (we do productions for still photo shoots, mostly commercial and advertising). When I started 10 years ago, there were plenty of others doing the same thing. But I thought I could offer some fresh perspectives on things, and so I worked and worked and worked and built a network and a lot of other things, and today it's highly profitable.

I left software engineering because I was tired of cube life and working for someone else on projects I didn't give a shiat about. If it didn't work out, what did I lose? Some time? Some money? So what?

These folks have a good family and friend network around them. Even if it doesn't work out, they'll have gained a ton of experience in business management which is helpful in so many other parts of life. It's not like they're going to end up under a bridge because they chased their dream.

I am looking at it more from a consumer perspective and I want something fresh/new/different/better. I love beer, and it is just kind of annoying to hear about more and more breweries that open up and are just producing average (or bad) beer. From my point of view I don't see the point of another brewery showing up and making a standard Blonde Ale/Pale Ale/IPA that everyone else is already making.

mechgreg:TheDirtyNacho: mechgreg: With the number of breweries out there, and the number growing all the time, I wonder why anyone would bother unless you could make world class beer, or have a killer gimmick, or can serve a local population with out any local competition. Because otherwise you are just one more in a sea of hundreds of brewers. I mean a few new breweries have opened up near me and while they are good, it seems crazy to me to risk your savings and work you ass off for something that is just good. To me it seems that if you can't be great (I am thinking like Hill Farmstead or Founders or Dieu du Ciel) at this point why would you bother? Maybe 10 years ago that would have worked (and you could build a brand) but now I am not sure I see a point.

Your post could apply to any new restaurant, or any new business really. Some people just want to have their own thing they offer to others.

I own a small business (we do productions for still photo shoots, mostly commercial and advertising). When I started 10 years ago, there were plenty of others doing the same thing. But I thought I could offer some fresh perspectives on things, and so I worked and worked and worked and built a network and a lot of other things, and today it's highly profitable.

I left software engineering because I was tired of cube life and working for someone else on projects I didn't give a shiat about. If it didn't work out, what did I lose? Some time? Some money? So what?

These folks have a good family and friend network around them. Even if it doesn't work out, they'll have gained a ton of experience in business management which is helpful in so many other parts of life. It's not like they're going to end up under a bridge because they chased their dream.

I am looking at it more from a consumer perspective and I want something fresh/new/different/better. I love beer, and it is just kind of annoying to hear about more and more breweries that open up and are just producing average ...

Sure, that is what consumers want. They also want a location near them or great food to go with it. Some brewpubs make great meeting spaces and cater to that too. Hell, in May I went to a wedding in Asheville that had its rehearsal in one brewery, and the wedding/reception at another.

If they do everything well, there's a good chance of long term success. Bad luck can always strike, but just because there's a lot of other beer in existence is no reason to not start a brewery if they feel they have something to offer.

TheDirtyNacho:I don't understand the perspective of some of these posts - "why do something if it might fail?" - Why do anything at all?

There's a difference between taking calculated risks and taking stupid risks driven by passion. What seems to be driving these people's decision to sell their house, etc. seems to be emotion ("I'm following my dream") as opposed to realism ("Is it financially wise to start yet another craft brewery in an increasingly saturated market? What is our competitive edge besides yet another "EXTREME!!!" IPA and a clever name/label?")

No one's saying not to take risks. Just be sure to listen to your head as well as your heart.

baconbeard:TheDirtyNacho: I don't understand the perspective of some of these posts - "why do something if it might fail?" - Why do anything at all?

There's a difference between taking calculated risks and taking stupid risks driven by passion. What seems to be driving these people's decision to sell their house, etc. seems to be emotion ("I'm following my dream") as opposed to realism ("Is it financially wise to start yet another craft brewery in an increasingly saturated market? What is our competitive edge besides yet another "EXTREME!!!" IPA and a clever name/label?")

No one's saying not to take risks. Just be sure to listen to your head as well as your heart.

That's an awful lot of assumptions from one tiny article (I know, it's Fark). Is Rancho Cucamonga that saturated? In my experience saturation of a market has less to do with success than smart management of overhead, which tends to be of a high ratio to revenue for new businesses.

Seriously, most markets are 'saturated'. It's rare to find a truly underserved area, unless it's just too expensive to serve it in whatever way.

BravadoGT:Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Hah, yeah this. you're likely not going to make shiat in a saturated market, better bet would be investing that 79K in an existing brewery and expanding its market share. Not that you shouldn't follow your dreams, but their dreams are going to be selling all that brewing equipment off at auction in two years.

baconbeard:TheDirtyNacho: I don't understand the perspective of some of these posts - "why do something if it might fail?" - Why do anything at all?

There's a difference between taking calculated risks and taking stupid risks driven by passion. What seems to be driving these people's decision to sell their house, etc. seems to be emotion ("I'm following my dream") as opposed to realism ("Is it financially wise to start yet another craft brewery in an increasingly saturated market? What is our competitive edge besides yet another "EXTREME!!!" IPA and a clever name/label?")

No one's saying not to take risks. Just be sure to listen to your head as well as your heart.

Your point is exactly what I am saying. And I am not even singling out the people in this article in general, it just seems like every new brewery I check out is set up in an industrial area and putting out average to kind of good beers in the same styles that everyone else is doing.

For this article I was even more surprised to find out that they are in California. To me that is even a bigger risk since there is so much great beer being made in California that competition would be super strong. I mean San Diego is less than a couple hours away and a lot of really great brewers are even closer, so I would just have to assume their town gets great beer distribution.

DarkSoulNoHope:CeroX: BravadoGT: Great! If there's one thing people are clamoring for, it's ANOTHER craft brewery....

Right, because fark the free market, what we REALLY need are only 2 or 3 beer manufacturing mega-corps that not only tell the country what they think beer should taste like, but buy government officials to make laws in their favor making it impossible for small start ups to get a foothold in the industry...

Yeah, no, what Bravado is complaining about is over saturation of the market. He isn't clamoring for a Budweiser, he's saying that all these Hipsters who open up breweries thinking their "idea" (which is copying someone else's idea to open up a "craft brewery") is unique when really there is so much different types of "Hopped IPA" it's really damn hard to figure they're going to survive in a few years when the "craft brewery" closes down due to lack of money.

In most cases, the situation you are talking about is more about local markets and local businesses vs. national/global businesses and markets.

So let's say the area I live are big fans of Stone Brewery products. A small start up might do exactly what you are talking about, start a craft brewery that starts off cloning a Stone Brew product. But they have no plans on expanding their market beyond say the state they reside in mostly because the federal requirements for selling across state lines means more fees, and the states themselves also have an alcohol bureau that regulates how alcohol can be sold in their state and in some cases that may mean changing the formula JUST to sell in that state. Small craft breweries don't want that hassle and prefer to work with a smaller market.

I'm fairly familiar with the process as one of my best friends is training to be a brew master for brew pub that has been around for 5 years and they are expanding later this year and opening a new location. We are finding that more and more people would rather put their money behind a local business than some company from CA or WI. Sure, those companies make a great product, but around here, we would rather put money into Brand X from Columbus OH, which tastes similar to Stone X because it supports local businesses.

So yes... what we need are MORE local companies to choose from. The successful ones will stick around, while the poorly handled ones will disappear. That means we have to suffer a bunch of people hopping on the bandwagon for a few years, and then after they all fall off, the strongest survives... And as long as they don't get so big that they start buying the government, there's nothing wrong with that... It might just mean a more demand for barley, wheat, and hops to be grown in the midwest rather than corn...